


Slice of Life: Running Hot and Cold

by The Black Sluggard (Hazgarn)



Series: Life [9]
Category: Castle
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Bathroom Sex, Established Relationship, Fluff, Horror, Humor, M/M, Romance, Shower Sex, Slash, Undead, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-19
Updated: 2011-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-26 07:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/280251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazgarn/pseuds/The%20Black%20Sluggard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Javier's condition meant their relationship was one of constant compromise, but not <i>all</i> of those compromises were a burden...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slice of Life: Running Hot and Cold

Javier would wind up blaming Kevin because _he_ was the one who left his toothbrush in the shower—and really, who even did that? Kevin would choose to blame _Javier_ … Though only because he refused to forgive him for the shocked _not_ -a-shriek that came out of his mouth when the water hit him as he leaned in to retrieve it.

"Holy _crap_." Kevin exclaimed, voice still carrying a little bit of a squeak, and Javier tried not to smile. "Do you always run the shower that cold?"

"Usually," Javier admitted with a small shrug. "It doesn't bother me. It doesn't even _feel_ cold to me."

And technically it wasn't. Slightly warm on his skin when he'd first got in, it was at least higher than room temperature...

"Thought you liked the heat?" Kevin asked, with just a touch of curiosity.

More and more, Kevin seemed to be growing comfortable enough to ask him questions. Just about the little things. More and more, he believed that was because Kevin knew Javier had grown more comfortable answering them. Tamping down on a stab of reflexive self-consciousness, he hitched another slight shrug.

"Yeah, well. Just seems like a waste of hot water."

"That's very green of you, Javi," he said, lips twisted in that way Kevin thought was seductive, but that Javier quietly thought was _cute_ more than anything else. "But don't you think there are more valuable things we could be saving?"

"Like what?" Javier asked, a little curious himself now, if a little wary about where the conversation was going.

"Time."

" _Time_?" Javier echoed skeptically.

"Time." Kevin repeated with a dangerous hint of a smile.

"I give up," Javier said after a moment, "How would running the water warmer than I need it save time?"

Suddenly, that hint was anything but.

"I'll demonstrate," was Kevin's immediate answer.

Javier raised an eyebrow as his partner leaned in to twist the knob on the hot water before ducking back behind the curtain. A short time—a _very_ short time later—it twitched open again, and Kevin slid in behind him. Arms circled his waist, drawing them together, and the sudden full contact of so much warm skin was criminally distracting. The water might have grown warmer, but it wasn't _that_ warm, not yet, and Kevin's presence behind him was like standing in front of a furnace.

"Okay," Javier conceded, a low note creeping into his voice that held amusement and something else. "You _may_ have a point."

"Oh, I _definitely_ have a point."

Kevin shifted his hips to emphasize his— And, really, there was only so much ridiculousness Javier could be expected to take. The noise that trickled out of him as he turned wasn't quite a growl, but it wasn't quite _not_ either. He pulled their bodies flush against each other, capturing Kevin's mouth to kiss him dirtily. Pulling back he saw a hot gleam shining in Kevin's eyes.

 _Begging_ him...

The warm, humid air felt heavy in his lungs and against his skin, a sensation that, with his arousal, left him feeling almost drugged. Leaning in close, his lips brushed Kevin's ear.

"Okay," he rasped, "But only if you never pull a line _that_ lame ever again."

Kevin's chest shook as he snorted a laugh.

"No promises," was the answer murmured against Javier's neck.

It was risky without the cuffs, and they both knew it. Risky...though not terribly so. Some days his control would hold; others, like that first impatient night, it wouldn't, but he was always aware when that control began to degrade. Kevin trusted him, and he was learning to trust _himself_ to stop before it ever became too much...

That morning, their luck held.

They wound up using more than twice the amount of hot water Kevin usually did in his showers, and they were both late for work. Still, they both agreed that what Kevin's idea lacked in practicality, it more than made up for in artistic merit.


End file.
